What money is worth, and what comes back

I can show what each coin is worth.

A coin's worth is a count of pennies, and the count is what puts the four coins in order.

Each tray has a matching penny row beside it and the four trays stand in order of worth.

First lesson. Hold up a nickel and a dime and ask which is worth more. Take the answers and settle nothing yet.

The tree grows one coin in the middle of each flower, a different coin every year, and the book never says what any of them is worth.

Pairs sort a mixed handful into four labelled trays, then lay five pennies beside the nickel, ten beside the dime and twenty-five beside the quarter in rows of five, and write the cent worth on each tray card.

Four trays in a line from least worth to most, each with its matching penny row as the proof.

Each child writes four sentences, one per tray, and reads them to a partner who checks each number against the penny row still lying on the mat.

I can show that the bigger coin is not always worth more.

Size and worth are two different orders of the same four coins, and only one of them is about money.

The two written lines do not match, and the child circles the coin that travels furthest between them.

Yesterday you ordered the coins by worth. Today you order the same four by size and put the two lines under each other.

The narrator objects that the small buds are not big enough for nickels, and the farmer answers that they are worth twice as much.

Pairs lay a nickel beside a dime and settle by looking which is bigger, build a row of five pennies under one and ten under the other, then order all four coins by size and again by worth and write both lines.

A two-line card, one order by size and one by worth, with the coin that moves furthest circled.

Each pair answers one question aloud to another pair — does the bigger coin always carry the bigger worth — pointing at two coins and saying both numbers.

I can trade coins without changing the money.

A trade swaps the coins and keeps the cents, which is not what the plus signs in the book's equations say.

The child counts what they give and what they get and says both amounts before the trade is accepted.

You know what each coin is worth. Today you are going to swap a handful for a single coin and the money has to stay the same.

The book prints the five-penny trade for a nickel on its own line, and two clean routes to ten cents.

Pairs line five pennies along the trade mat and count them, slide them onto the GIVE side and take one nickel onto GET, count both sides and say both amounts; then build ten cents as a nickel and five pennies and trade for a dime.

The trade mat with each exchange counted on both sides, and the two routes to ten cents built.

Pairs build two nickels, trade for a dime, then say the two routes they took to ten cents and what each one is worth.

I can find every way and say why there are no more.

Organising the search by one coin is what turns a hunt into a finished list.

The child says the three ways in order and finishes with the reason there is no fourth.

Yesterday one amount had two routes. Today the question is how many routes there are altogether.

Two ways to build a quarter out of smaller coins are given and then the book stops; with nickels and dimes there is a third.

Pairs build the book's two ways and count each to twenty-five, hunt for a third using nickels and dimes only and count it, then sort every pile into columns by how many dimes it used and try to fill a fourth column with three dimes.

A sorting chart with the three ways in their dime columns and the failed fourth column counted to thirty.

Each pair tells another pair the whole list in order and finishes with the reason there is no fourth: three dimes is thirty cents, and thirty cents is past twenty-five.

I can pay one price several ways.

A price fixes an amount and not a set of coins, so what you hand over depends on what you are holding.

Every recorded payment counts to thirty-five, and the keep tray is counted each time.

Yesterday you found every way to make an amount with any coins you liked. Today you can only use the coins in the purse.

The book asks how Sebastian will pay thirty-five cents and prints one answer without saying why that one.

Pairs build the sixty cents the friends hold, move the book's payment into the payment tray and count both trays, then pay the same price a different way using only the coins they have, recording each payment by drawing round the coins.

Up to four recorded payments, each counted to thirty-five, with the keep tray counted alongside.

Pairs lay their payments side by side and say what number was the same in all of them and what was different, then say which used the fewest coins and which the most.

I can decide whether the money is enough.

The same handful is too much at one price and not enough at another, so the price has to be read before the coins are counted.

The child says enough or not enough with both numbers in the sentence, before any coin moves.

You can build a payment. Today you have to decide first whether you can pay at all.

The book runs the same purchase twice: a quarter buys ten cents of candy, and a dollar buys a seventy-five cent toy.

Pairs price two candies at five cents each, count the quarter, and say before anything moves whether it is enough with both numbers; then pay ten cents and count what came back and write the subtraction.

The change counted and the subtraction written for the candy, and a spoken sufficiency judgement with both numbers for the toy.

Pairs put four quarters down and count them to one hundred, pay seventy-five by sliding three across, count what stays and name the coin.

I can find the change two different ways.

Counting up from the price to a dollar and taking the price off a dollar reach the same amount from opposite directions.

Both routes give the same change, and the child says so.

Yesterday you counted what came back. Today you find it twice, once forwards and once backwards, and check they agree.

Twice in this book a dollar goes out and something comes back, and the book prints the amount without showing the working.

Pairs set the seventy-five cent price, pay the paper dollar and lay out the change; then do the same price again by starting at seventy-five and adding coins until the pile reaches a dollar, saying the amount they added.

The pay mat with the change laid out, and the same amount reached a second way by counting up.

Pairs run the sixty-cent and ninety-cent cards, build each price, hand over the dollar and write the subtraction sentence for each on their slate.

I can hear which question the shopkeeper is being asked.

One preposition decides between splitting a dollar into coins and taking a price out of it, and both are printed in this book with their answers.

Two sentences are written with the changed word underlined and a different cents amount under each.

You can find change two ways. Today the sentence itself changes, and the two versions are asking for different things.

The book says somebody needed change for a dollar and answers it with four quarters; elsewhere it computes a dollar minus seventy-five cents.

Pairs read the book's sentence and say what the shopkeeper has to do, lay four quarters into the dollar mat counting to one hundred, then write the swapped word onto the blank strip, clear the mat, set the price and hand over the dollar.

Two written sentences one above the other with the changed word underlined and the cents amount each produced.

Each pair reads both lines to another pair and says why one word, and only that word, moved the answer from four coins to one.